25. The Start of the Common Era Was a Terrible Time in Ancient China
The Common Era did not start off well for China. In the stretch from the years 2 and 11 AD, the Yellow River underwent disastrous course changes that led to floods and famines and widespread dislocation and hardship. As if that turmoil was not enough, in the middle of all that chaos, a vicious civil war erupted to further add to the misery of the Chinese. In 8 AD, Wang Mang, a government official, overthrew the Early Han Dynasty which had reigned over China for two centuries. In its stead, he founded the short-lived Xin Dynasty.
The political turmoil, natural disasters, hardships and hunger, took place against a backdrop of resentful peasantry – who had plenty of cause for resentment. Their main grievance was a rise in debt slavery. When peasants borrowed to make ends meet – and they often were unable to make ends meet – and failed to repay the loans, they were sold as slaves to satisfy the debt. Another grievance was a steady consolidation of agricultural land from the small plots typically farmed by small peasants, that were seized and united into large tracts controlled by powerful magnates. Conditions were thus ripe for a peasant revolt.